Sunday, October 27, 2013

New recruits to the Israel Defense Forces who are hard of hearing taught their peers how to sing the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva, in sign language. They performed it at their swearing-in ceremony, surprising their parents and friends.

As both places have robust water technology sectors, Israel and the Canadian province of Ontario should combine forces in bringing innovation to nations in water crisis, a minister from the province stressed on Tuesday.

“We have opportunities to join forces to provide water solutions to third countries who need water,” Eric Hoskins, Ontario’s economic development, trade and employment minister told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that day.

Hoskins spoke with the Post on the grounds of the Water Technology and Environmental Control (WATEC) Exhibition and Conference, organized by the Israel Trade Fairs Center and Kenes Exhibitions company. He came to the exhibition with a delegation of 10 businesses from the Ontario region.

Although Ontario and Canada in general have copious amounts of freshwater, the province and country have not remained complacent and are eager to share their technological knowhow with less fortunate portions of the world, Hoskins stressed.

“We often refer to it as a blue economy,” he said. “I think that having the Great Lakes and an abundance of freshwater has almost given us a responsibility to develop technology and reach out to more portions of the world that are more challenged.”

Although Canada has an enormous water supply, there are still remote communities that do not have easy access to clean water, which has necessitated the development of innovative technologies, Hoskins explained. Meanwhile, the oil and gas sector has also caused the country to face water challenges related to these industries, he added.

Israel has the same forward way of thinking as does Ontario in the water sector, and Hoskins expressed confidence that the two would be able to make a positive impact by assisting third parties in developing their water sectors together.

“Water security is incredibly important to any country, but the opportunity to export is also a tremendous economic opportunity as well,” Hoskins said.

Not only are such efforts profitable, they also can drift into the humanitarian sector – providing help to those in need. A lifetime humanitarian, Hoskins spent a decade as a medical doctor and humanitarian in war-torn regions of Africa, and later went on to found the War Child Canada charity with his wife, Dr. Samantha Nutt.

“From early on in my career, I became aware of how important access to adequate quantities of clean water is,” he said. “The gap is getting worse, and in the years and decades ahead I think that water is going to become an even more challenging issue for many communities around the world.”

As far as cooperation among Israeli and Ontario water firms and businesses in general are concerned, Hoskins stressed the fact that already a tremendous amount of collaboration exists between the two. In particular, he cited an ongoing partnership between Israel’s national water supplier Mekorot and Canadian firm Real Tech Ltd., which produces absorption measuring instruments to identify organic contaminants.

“I’m here to support our businesses, build those partnerships, see ways that Israel and Ontario, Israel and Canada, can work together, whether it’s bilateral or on other jurisdictions,” Hoskins said.

Although his delegation to Israel is primarily from the water sector, Hoskins himself has also met with government officials, business leaders and social enterprises while here.

Hoskins also met with team members of Access Israel, an organization that he explained is doing remarkable work creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities – something that he is also focused on in Ontario.

“What brought me here is water, but the purpose of the trade mission is broader than that,” he said. “I think we’ve got great potential to use that friendship to develop even stronger business and economic ties.”

Israel is a world leader in both innovation and medicine. Combine the two and you get great inventions that prevent, heal and monitor many health conditions.

Ever wonder how the Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days kept their feet from smelling or getting infected? An Israeli innovation involving the use of copper in textiles not only helped them but can also reduce hospital infections greatly. Need to check your temperature, blood sugar or EEG in an instant? A new smartphone now does all that and more. Want to correct a baby's MTA deformities in 6 weeks, without the need for heavy braces on his legs? A small brace on the foot will do it. These are just a few of the innovations on display, in this, the first of two videos about Israeli innovation in life sciences (the second will be uploaded in November).

Legendary Welsh singer Tom Jones landed in Israel on Friday afternoon ahead of two concerts at Tel Aviv’s Nokia Arena, on Saturday and Monday. This is his second visit to Israel.

Jones, 73, arrived on a direct flight from Los Angeles and was joined by his concert crew members who came in shortly afterwards from London.

The popular singer’s performance in the Jewish state was the subject of a fierce online battle between British Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists,

who tried to pressure Jones to cancel his concert in the country, and Israel supporters who encouraged him to go ahead with the performance and expressed their love for the singer.

Jones is famous for a string of hits from his 50-year career, including “Delilah,” “It’s Not Unusual” and “Sex Bomb.” Since 2012 he has been serving as a coach on television talent show “The Voice UK.”

Click To View Video
The Center for North African Jewry and the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra connect cultures together:

The Center for North African Jewry in Jerusalem exhibits the culture that is common to the Muslims and to the Jews of North Africa, while the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra Ashdod creates a connecting link between Jews and Arabs. See and hear what we are sharing together.

The renovation was made possible after Ikea and Akim began fund-raising campaign this past summer.

Furniture megastore Ikea, NGO Akim, which promotes the integration of people with mental disabilities in Israel, and NGO Chimes Israel, which aims to provide services for people with special needs, inaugurated this week Chimes’s freshly renovated educational and therapeutic center for toddlers with disabilities in Jaffa.

The renovation was made possible after Ikea and Akim began a fund-raising campaign for children with disabilities this past summer and managed to raise more than NIS 100,000.

The operation, which involved both Ikea branches – in Rishon Lezion and Netanya – consisted of IKEA donating NIS 5 to the cause from every meal purchased by customers at the store’s restaurant. In addition, some of the children of customers who purchased meals participated in helping with the renovation.

Jorge Zimmermann, director-general of Chimes Israel, welcomed the “mobilization of Ikea Israel and the NGO Akim for the benefit Children of Chimes” at the inauguration ceremony, which took place on Monday.

“Cooperations between business entities and nonprofit associations necessarily benefit both parties,” he said, adding that he appreciated “the spirit of volunteering, giving and investing, which is not to be taken for granted.”

CEO of Ikea Israel Shlomi Gabai stated that the company sees its partnership with Akim as “an integral part of the vision and values of Ikea to make everyday life better.

“Accordingly, we feel an obligation to increase the awareness of society to the needs of people with disabilities,” he continued.

“We were also delighted to integrate into the project the children of our customers, who voluntarily helped renovate the center and who have been practicing values of giving and helping others.”

A delegation of official representatives of the University of Montreal – UDM – in Quebec, Canada signed academic cooperation agreements with the Technion and Haifa University this week during a visit to Israel coordinated by Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

The delegation, led by UDM President Guy Breton, has also begun discussions on possible collaborations with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Bar-Ilan University.

Sponsored by Here Is Israel: facebook.com/HereIsIsrael
Music, Production and Mixing by Yirmiyahu BenZion: facebook.com/MaameenProductions

Boycott Israel Lyrics
by Ari Lesser

Boycott Israel, if you think that's just
But unless you have a double standard you must
Also boycott the rest of the nations
With allegations of human rights violations
We're not perfect but if you think we're the worst
First take a look at the rest of the earth
Don't pick and choose to pick on the Jews
Pick up the paper and read the news

Boycott North Korea I don't think you'll see a
Country in the world that could be un-freer
Boycott China, let's not forget
That they stole the whole country of Tibet
Boycott Japan slaughtering thousands
Of helpless innocent whales and dolphins
Boycott Vietnam where they choose to use
Drug addicts as slave to shell cashews
Boycott Cambodia, grabbing up land
Five million acres from the poor man's hand
Boycott Thailand for shutting the door
And deporting refugees back to the war
Boycott Burma, don't let your cash slip
Into the grip of that military dictatorship
Boycott India, women can't escape
When the government officials are guilty of rape
Boycott Pakistan, crazy country
Where they execute people for blasphemy
And boycott Afghanistan opium land
Where poppy fields stand in the Taliban's hand

Chorus

Boycott Syria their government's killing
Thousands of innocent, unarmed, civilians
Boycott Iraq make them change the laws
That lock up and torture people without cause
Boycott Iran with the greatest rate
Of execution out of every other state
Boycott Turkey because they've always denied
And lied about the Armenian Genocide
Boycott Turkmenistan, where the only media
That you ever see is what the president'll feed to ya
Boycott Uzbekistan, government's rotten
Enslaving children to harvest cotton
Boycott Russia because every year
More Muslims mysteriously disappear
Boycott Ukraine, where the politicians
Lock up the opposition, so there's no competition
Boycott Belarus, president's got to go
You know those elections are just for show
And boycott Germany, cause there's no reparation
For murdering half the Jewish population

Chorus

Boycott Sudan, the Darfur genocide
Where hundreds of thousands have already died
Boycott Egypt and don't let that narrow
Minded president keep acting like Pharaoh
Boycott Saudi Arabian oppression
Of women getting beat up, treated like possessions
Boycott Bahrain police brutality
Against the Shi'ites by the Sunni Monarchy
Boycott Yemen make them stop the obscene
Execution of juveniles under eighteen
Boycott Eritrea national slavery
Where they work for free indefinitely
Boycott the Congo, doing terrible things
To sell blood diamond engagement rings
Boycott Zimbabwe you'll find all kinds
Of torture behind those government mines
Boycott South Africa, make them pay
For the hundreds of women raped everyday
Boycott Ivory Coast, sound the alarm
There's thousands of slaves on those cocoa farms

Chorus

Boycott Chile because they deny
Abortions even if the mother will die
And boycott Brazil where the brutal police
Kill thousands of people to keep the peace
Boycott Venezuela closer inspection
Shows that the socialists stole the election
Boycott Colombia, putting out the lights
Of anyone who fights for union rights
Boycott Ecuador for stealing the lands
Of indigenous people for their corporate plans
And boycott Costa Rica where they've applied
So much pesticide, that hundreds have died
Boycott Honduras where a journalist
Gets shot if he writes anything like this
Boycott Mexico in the war on drugs
The military acts like the cartel thugs
Boycott the USA make them pay
For torturing people in Guantanamo bay
And boycott Cuba, but if the government hears
You criticize them, you'll be locked up for years

And boycott Israel, if you think that's just
But unless you have a double standard you must
Also boycott the rest of the nations
With allegations of human rights violations
We're not perfect but if you think we're the worst
First take a look at the rest of the earth
Don't pick and choose to pick on the Jews

A photo (above) has been “doing the rounds” in anti-Israel and “pro-Palestinian” circles online. Facebook groups, Twitter accounts, and whatever else people are using to repeat the lie nowadays have been peddling what can only be described as another failed Pallywood attempt to smear the Jewish state and hasten the international community’s withdrawal of support from Israel.

The problem is of course, to those who aren’t mindless repeaters, or in this case, retweeters, there’s always two sides to the story.

Initially, as you can see, the picture portrays an Israeli soldier holding onto a Palestinian woman, presumably because he’s simply an aggressive, occupying bastard. Purportedly, he is even holding onto her hair, even worse of a crime given her submission choice over wearing a headscarf. This guy must really hate Muslims, huh!

Or so they would have you think.

The reality of it follows: The woman in question was just moments before hurling at least one rock at Israeli civilians and soldiers.

Below, you can see her caught in the act of terrorising people, likely in an attempt to provoke a response.

And with regards the soldier’s actions? He’s clearly holding her jacket, not her hair, or headscarf, as zooming in shows.

So there you have it. More Pallywood lies rumbled, more mistruths set straight.

The question is, are you going to do your part and share this with everyone YOU know?

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Click To View Video
Founded in 2001, StandWithUs is dedicated to informing the public about Israel and to combating the extremism and anti-Semitism that often distorts the issues. We work by supporting people around the world who want to stand up for Israel and educate their own local campuses and communities.

Visit us at http://www.StandWithUs.com/
LIKE us at https://www.facebook.com/StandWithUs

Caffeine makes the genetic material in the cells grow older, researchers from Tel Aviv University have discovered.

For years we thought coffee was bad for our health. Then, new studies found that a few cups of coffee a day can actually be pretty healthy. Now, Israeli researchers have discovered that caffeine and alcohol affect the cells’ ageing, the genome’s stability, and even the chance of getting cancer.

The study was conducted by Prof. Prof. Martin Kupiec, Dr. Gal Hagit Romano, Yaniv Harari, Dr. Assaf Gottlieb and other researchers, and was published recently in the PLoS Genetics journal.

The researchers based their study on the finding that stress shortens telomeres – the ends of the chromosomes, which protect the genetic material in each cell. The telomeres serve as the cell’s “biological clock” and become shorter as the cell grows older.

“We found out that substances we are exposed to in our daily life – especially caffeine and alcohol – affected the length of the telomeres,” explained Dr. Gal Hagit Romano.

“We found that a low concentration of caffeine (for example like in a regular shot of espresso) significantly shortened the telomeres. A low concentration of alcohol (5% and 7%), however, elongated them significantly,” she added.

Cancer cells actively lengthen the cell’s telomeres, so that they can continue dividing forever.

Israel’s all-male Ka’et Ensemble is a unique dance troupe of religious men who merge the worlds of spirituality and movement.

If the dance movements of Israel’s Ka’et Ensemble bring to mind the rhythmic swaying of Orthodox prayer, that’s by design. Ka’et (“Right Now”) is a unique troupe of religious men who merge the worlds of Jewish spirituality and movement. When dancer-choreographer and movement teacher Ronen Izhaki first saw the seeds of this unusual genre in a group of yeshiva students preparing a performance at the Akko Theatre Center nearly 14 years ago, it immediately transported him emotionally to the boredom he associated with the synagogue of his childhood.

“I didn’t like it at first. But after 15 or 20 minutes I fell in love with the movement language, and it took another few weeks to fall in love with the people,” Izhaki tells ISRAEL21c at Jerusalem’s Ephron Dance Center after a rehearsal of the ensemble’s newest performance piece, “Beggars’ March.” Seven years after choreographing for those yeshiva students, Izhaki was approached by some of the young men to teach them. Eventually he founded a dance theater school for men, Kol Atzmotai Tomarna (“All My Bones Shall Say,” from Psalm 35) and became the director of Ka’et for some of his most talented disciples. “It happened slowly, from the bottom up, without any big vision,” Izhaki explains. “I was slowly seduced to move from my other projects and put my energy into this.”

Ka’et will perform on October 30 at the DocDance Festival in Jerusalem; and December 18 at the Jaffa Port.

Ormat could be building a Recovered Energy Generation power plant in Utah for ebay’s new data center.

The Israeli renewable energy firm Ormat Technologies Inc. will likely be providing online auction giant eBay Inc. with a 5-megawatt recovered energy generation (REG) power plant to be constructed in Utah, the companies announced on Thursday.

The firms recently signed a joint development agreement that will allow them to proceed with negotiations on a 20-year contract and then begin preliminary development of the facility. The REG power plant is slated to capture waste heat from industrial processes and transform it into electricity for eBay’s new Salt Lake City-based data center, according to Ormat.

“We commend eBay Inc.’s commitment to sustainable commerce and look forward to helping them achieve their clean energy goals,” said Yoram Bronicki, president and chief operating officer for Ormat. “We’re hopeful that our work with eBay Inc. will continue to promote REG as a predictable, environmentally friendly energy source that provides a hedge against the variability of fossil fuel costs.”

Bronicki attributed the project’s development in large part to the fact that energy efficiency has lately begun to play a much larger role in the US market.

“REG offers a proven solution for clean energy to significantly improve energy efficiency to an existing facility,” he said. “These benefits directly contribute to [US] President [Barack] Obama’s national goal, set forth by Executive Order, to coordinate and strongly encourage efforts to deploy 40 gigawatts of energy efficiency in the US by the end of 2020.”

Ormat already has more than 160 megawatts of installed REG capacity already operating in North America, and a total of 595 megawatts operating around the world, the company said.

The joint development agreement between eBay and Ormat was made possible by Utah legislation – which eBay supported – aimed at enabling non-utility energy consumers to buy and transmit power directly from energy developers. The law, called SB12, was passed in 2012.

Afterward, eBay initiated a structured procurement process for an external energy supplier to power its data center. Ormat was the winning bidder.

“SB12 was a critical component to identifying Ormat as a solution to our greener energy needs,” said Dean Nelson, vice president of global foundation services at eBay Inc. “This milestone points to our belief that commerce can be fundamentally more sustainable than it is today – and that eBay Inc. can be a leader in that transition.”

Nelson added that the firm intended to pursue contracts for further REG power “and to reach, and possibly surpass, our goal to source at least 8 percent of our energy from cleaner sources by 2015.”

The Center for North African Jewry and the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra connect cultures together:

The Center for North African Jewry in Jerusalem exhibits the culture that is common to the Muslims and to the Jews of North Africa, while the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra Ashdod creates a connecting link between Jews and Arabs. See and hear what we are sharing together.

Facebook VP Nicola Mendelsohn: It was a momentous decision for Facebook to open its first R&D center outside the US.

“Facebook was amazed by the amount of talent in such a small country like Israel,” Facebook VP EMEA Nicola Mendelsohn told President Shimon Peres today, following Facebook Inc.’s (Nasdaq: FB) acquisition of Onavo Ltd., which will become Facebook’s development center in Israel.

“It was a momentous decision for Facebook to open its first R&D center outside the US. We chose Israel in the knowledge that the best talent is found here. Onavo, the Israeli company that we acquired with all its knowhow in data compression, will help Facebook achieve its vision of linking the largest number of users possible in the world, including, of course, Africa and the Middle East. We are waiting impatiently for the establishment of the Facebook Israel team in the coming months and years.”

Asked how other countries could emulate Israel’s technological and development achievements, Peres told Mendelsohn that Israelis’ outstanding character traits were chutzpah and dissatisfaction, which encouraged innovation and thinking outside the box. “Israelis always strive to learn, investigate, and break borders. Israeli Chutzpah does not rest, entrepreneurship is in our DNA.”

Peres added, “The establishment of a Facebook development center in Israel will contribute greatly to Facebook. Out of Israel’s lack of natural resources, the best brains grew and built a thriving high-tech industry. Your investment in Israel is just the start. Israeli start-ups have huge potential for international innovation and Facebook.”

Website Business Insider used the occasion ofInternational Day of the Girl - a global movement to highlight, discuss, celebrate and help to advance women’s lives and explore opportunities worldwide – to launch its “seven women pushing the boundaries… and helping to create a better world for all” list.

Business Insider said “Israeli feminism is finally moving into the offensive with the help of this activist and political leader.”

Her political initiative, Ometz Lev, is led by female leaders in Jerusalem. The party is participating in Jerusalem’s municipal elections next week where it aims to get more women elected to city council seats.

Ometz Lev’s platform promotes ” female leadership, government transparency, environmental responsibility and religious tolerance,” Business Insider wrote.“With female representation in government still shockingly low in countries worldwide, Tsur’s efforts stand to make an impact on Israel as a whole, and possibly even the Middle East at large, a region in much need of improved women’s rights.”

Others on the formidable list which included Tsur, were Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Afghan activist and humanitarian who was recently tapped as a front-runner for the Nobel Peace Prize, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and the founder of Teach for America, Wendy Kopp.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, one of the world’s largest cell phone providers, is interested in acquiring two Israeli companies to help it take on its competitors, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The newspaper cites a Samsung document which mentions Israeli mobile search engine developer Everything.me as a possible target acquisition and video-chat app Rounds. The newspaper mentions specifically that acquiring Rounds would help Samsung compete with Apple’s FaceTime and Google’s Hangout.

The Wall Street Journal noted that Samsung expressed interest in an Israeli company earlier this year as well.

“Samsung was among the bidders for Israeli mobile-mapping service Waze Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter. Google eventually bought Waze for about $1.1 billion in July, a deal that is under review by the Federal Trade Commission. According to one person, Samsung had approached Waze in hopes of making a large investment and forming a partnership, before acquisition talks kicked off,” said The Journal.

Archaeological evidence shows: Not only humans but Neanderthals and Homo erectus used broken flint, bone tools to make new ones

If you thought recycling was just a modern phenomenon championed by environmentalists— think again. There is mounting evidence that hundreds of thousands of years ago, our prehistoric ancestors recycled objects they used in their daily lives, say researchers gathered at an international conference in Israel.

“For the first time we are revealing the extent of this phenomenon, both in terms of the amount of recycling that went on and the different methods used,” said Ran Barkai, an archaeologist and one of the organizers of the four-day gathering at Tel Aviv University that ended Thursday.

Just as today we recycle materials such as paper and plastic to manufacture new items, early hominids would collect discarded or broken tools made of flint and bone to create new utensils, Barkai said.

The behavior “appeared at different times, in different places, with different methods according to the context and the availability of raw materials,” he told The Associated Press.

Homo erectus and recycling: A survival strategy?

From caves in Spain and North Africa to sites in Italy and Israel, archaeologists have been finding such recycled tools in recent years. The conference, titled “The Origins of Recycling,” gathered nearly 50 scholars from about 10 countries to compare notes and figure out what the phenomenon meant for our ancestors.

Recycling was widespread not only among early humans but among our evolutionary predecessors such as Homo erectus, Neanderthals and other species of hominids that have not yet even been named, Barkai said.

Avi Gopher, a Tel Aviv University archaeologist, said the early appearance of recycling highlights its role as a basic survival strategy. While they may not have been driven by concerns over pollution and the environment, hominids shared some of our motivations, he said.

“Why do we recycle plastic? To conserve energy and raw materials,” Gopher said. “In the same way, if you recycled flint you didn’t have to go all the way to the quarry to get more, so you conserved your energy and saved on the material.”

In the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva, located in the Negev desert near the Israeli city of Be'er Sheva, Maryan Abu Rakayek has set up a natural cosmetics company. Using methods learned from her grandmother, and passed down in the Bedouin community from generation-to-generation, Maryan transforms traditional herbs and other natural ingredients into cosmetics, soaps and other treatments. "Desert Daughter" is a growing company, and the first Bedouin cosmetics label in the world.

Ben Gurion University professor Amir Sagi won the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s inaugural innovation award, which was presented to him at the GAA’s GOAL conference in Paris, France on Tuesday.

Sagi’s innovation, which involves a novel biotechnology application to produce all male populations of the giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii through temporal RNA interference, was chosen among 15 other applications from 10 other countries including Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, India, Peru, Korea, Taiwan and the United States.

The award, sponsored by the international animal nutrition solutions company Novus, was accompanied by a $ 1,000 cash prize.

Sagi is the past president of the International Society of Invertebrate Reproduction and Development and former Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Ben-Gurion University. He holds the Lily and Sidney Oelbaum chair for Applied Biochemistry at the Department of Life Sciences and the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev. He presented his innovation to about 350 attendees at GOAL 2013 on Tuesday.

Pope Francis has said he plans on visiting Israel in March on a joint pilgrimage with his friend, Argentinian Rabbi Abraham Skorka, Channel 2 news reported Sunday.

The Pope, who was formally invited to Israel by President Shimon Peres in April, said he will come with a message of reconciliation between Judaism and Christianity.

According to Channel 2, Pope Francis said he and Rabbi Zakorka have a joint dream of hugging one another next to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

In June, Pope Francis condemned anti-Semitism during a meeting with representatives of the international Jewish community at the Vatican, saying that “because of our commons roots, a true Christian cannot be anti-Semitic.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who will be visiting the pope in a few days’ time, said he would present him with a formal invitation to Bethlehem, Channel 2 reported.

In February, Pope Francis became the first pope in modern times to succeed a living pontiff, Benedict XVI, after Benedict resigned. Benedict went to Israel in 2009, and his predecessor, John Paul II, visited in 2000.

Click To View Video
The 15th edition of the famed film festival features 100 films in four theatres, in addition to outdoor screenings across Tel Aviv.

Israeli documentaries have had great international success, winning prizes and critical praise wherever they go -- "The Gatekeepers," directed by Dror Moreh, and "5 Broken Cameras," directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, got Oscar nominations for 2012.

DocAviv is the annual festival where the latest Israeli documentary films get their world premiere.

The event also features a student competition as well as a "pitching forum" where students who have projects in production can try to pique the interest of professionals from television and cinema.

As one viewer says in this video, "The reason I like documentaries is because they are showing you a story about life and people you don't know that you never see and hear about. Yes, especially about Israeli life."

Facebook announced early Monday that it had acquired Onavo, a three-year-old start-up that makes data compression software and offers a variety of analytic services for smartphone applications. The purchase of Onavo, which has about 40 employees, gives Facebook, the world’s biggest social networking company, its first office in Israel.

Most of Facebook’s employees work at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, and historically, the company has sought to pull workers at acquired companies into the mother ship. But as part of the sale, which was for an undisclosed price, Onavo appears to have cut a deal to keep most of that firm’s employees in Tel Aviv.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

The Kotel, situated in the middle of Jerusalem, is a holy place and home to many, but this night it was home of the new recruits of the Air Defense Battalion who were being sworn into the Israel Defense Forces. One hundred and fifty soldiers stood at the Kotel swearing their allegiance to the IDF. These soldiers are taught to operate the Iron Dome missile defense system.

It was a historical night for the 150 soldiers who stood under the stars in the Old City of Jerusalem. Standing at the Kotel — called the Western Wall in English — the soldiers were swearing their allegiance to protect the people and the State of Israel. Many of the new IDF recruits, who serve as soldiers in the Air Defense Command, protect Israel’s civilians against attacks by operating the Iron Dome missile defense system.

One soldier in the unit, Pvt. Or Meidan, stands out amongst the new recruits. In 2011, Pvt. Meidan immigrated to Israel from Uganda with her family. “We were living at a kibbutz, Yad Mordechi, during operation Pillar of Defense,” she recalls of her first days in the country. “Rockets were flying near us every day from the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip.”

Upon arriving in Israel, Pvt. Meidan planned to finish her university studies, but her experience during the operation inspired her to take a different path. Pvt. Meidan decided to follow in the footsteps of her stepfather, a native-born Israeli, and join the IDF. “My grandfather helped me see that as an Israeli citizen, I also had a duty to serve my country,” she explained proudly.

At first, joining the army was an overwhelming decision for Pvt. Meidan. “I first went to Mikve Alon and took a Hebrew course,” she says, referring to her participation in a basic-training track for new immigrants. After improving her Hebrew, she drafted into the Air Defense Command, where she joined a group of soldiers tasked with operating the Iron Dome system. She realized that the role would allow her to protect Israeli civilians from the same rocket fire that threatened her family and friends during the operation.

Or Meidan’s fellow soldiers being sworn in

“Growing up in Uganda wasn’t particularly difficult. I was very focused on my schoolwork and enjoyed learning about new things.” Pvt. Meidan explains. “I never thought I would be so challenged and fulfilled, and I am looking forward my daily life and accomplishments in the IDF,” she adds. Her goal is to become a commander for the Iron Dome battery, and train others in the importance of being able to save lives and protect Israeli citizens.

Pvt. Meidan is not Jewish, but she intends participate in Nativ, a special track for IDF soldiers interested in converting to Judaism. “I am an Israeli citizen and I am very proud of the job I am doing in the IDF, but somehow converting to Judaism just feels right,” she says.

Hebrew University biochemists Professor Aharon Razin and Professor Haim Cedar, both past winners of the Israel Prize, are considered favorites to win 2013 Nobel Prize in the fields of medicine or chemistry for their research on the DNA sequence.

World-renowned Hebrew University biochemists Professor Aharon Razin and Professor Haim Cedar are the frontrunners for the 2013 Nobel Prize in the fields of medicine or chemistry.

The two have been named the leading candidates for their research on the DNA sequence. The Nobel Prize winners are officially announced in early October. The winner or winners share a prize totalling about $1.25 million.

Razin and Cedar jointly won the 2008 Wolf Prize for their research. Cedar is the recipient of the 1999 Israel Prize for biology, while Razin was awarded the 2004 Israel Prize for biochemistry.

The research that has garnered Cedar and Razin their Nobel Prize nomination, which they pursued along with Scottish scientist Adrian Bird, studies the changes in the DNA sequence as a result of the methylation process — a chemical reaction in which methyl joins the genetic sequence. This molecular process affects approximately 40,000 genes in the human body.

Cedar, 70, was born and studied in the United States until 1970, when he immigrated to Israel. He studied at the Hebrew University’s School of Medicine and has been a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 2003. Cedar has won several awards for his work, including the 2009 Emet Natural Science Prize, the Gardener Prize and the Rothschild Prize and the 2011 Canada Gairdner Award.

He currently serves as a professor of the biochemistry and genetics of the human cell at the Hebrew University and chairs the developmental biology and cancer research department at the Institute for Medical Research, Israel-Canada.Razin, 78, studied physics and mathematics at the Hebrew University, where he also earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in biochemistry. Upon completing his studies, he went on to become a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology. He returned to Israel in 1971, serving as a professor of cellular biochemistry and human genetics at the Hebrew University School of Medicine. In 2001, he shared the Canada Gairdner Award with Cedar for their “pioneering discoveries on DNA methylation and its role in gene expression.”

Click To View Video - The Jerusalem Museum for Islamic Art
Islamic cultural heritage has its home in Israel at the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem, which features ancient collections along exhibitions of modern Arab-Israeli artists. The museum aims to encourage coexistence between members of all religions by introducing Islamic art and culture to the Israeli public and to foreign visitors.

Read more about the Museum: http://mfa.gov.il/mfa/israelexperienc...
---------------------------------------­­­­­­­­­­­­­­--------------
Visit the MFA's Social Media Channels:

After the success of Showtime Network’s “Homeland,” based on Israeli series “Hatufim,” two more Israeli television programs have been acquired to be reproduced for U.S. audiences, Israel’s Globes business daily reported.

Globes said “Shkufim,” False Flags, and “Haverot,” Girlfriends, were bought by Fox International and Warner Brothers Studios, respectively.

“Shkufim” is based on the story of the assassination in Dubai of a senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Globes said. “It involves eight ordinary Israelis who wake up one morning and discover that their names, faces, and personal details have been splashed across the world’s media on suspicion of involvement in an international crime. What begins as an apparent case of mistaken identity, escalates into a psychological espionage drama,” the newspaper said. In the Fox series, to be called “False Flag”, the characters will be Americans, rather than Israelis.

“Shkufim” was developed by Amit Cohen-Raab and Maria Feldman for Keshet International, which will be the joint producer, with director Peter Landesman. The program was sold before airing in Israel, scheduled for 2014 by Channel 2.

Keshet developed the show “Hatufim,” Prisoners of War, which formed the basis of the U.S. series “Homeland,” while Cohen-Raab also co-wrote the espionage show “The Gordin Cell,” sold to NBC as “Mice.”

Warner Brothers Studios will produce a pilot of the Israeli comedy show “Haverot,” Girlfriends, for CBS. Channel 10 broadcast “Haverot” earlier this year to fairly strong ratings and its second season is now in production, Globes said. The prime time comedy is about a group of women dealing with married life and their first children.

The show’s creators, Lital Schwartz, Yoav Gross, Shay Ben-Atar, and Liat Shavit, will participate in part of the U.S. production, while Greg Berlanti, whose credits include “Arrow” and “Brothers and Sisters,” will head the U.S. production, Globes said.

Warren Buffett is increasing his company’s infiltration into the Israeli market:

Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary to purchase company developing, distributing electrical interconnect solutions to military industries. Ray-Q, which employs 70 workers in Israel, expected to stay in country

Calcalist has learned that of Berkshire Hathaway’s primary shareholder is acquiring Israel-based Ray-Q Interconnect, which develops electrical systems for military industries.

Ray-Q (formerly Tex Tronics), which is owned by CEO Yigal Funt (49.8%), CTO Avner Gilath (26.6%) and CSO Ezra Carmel, will be sold to TTI, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary which specializes in distributing passive, interconnect, electromechanical and discrete semiconductor components to companies worldwide.

The final details of the deal have yet to be disclosed; therefore it is still unclear how much TTI paid for the acquisition. Yet the sum is likely smaller than what Buffett paid for Iscar, which was purchased by Berkshire for some $6 billion in two rounds: In 2006 and in 2013. The deal is still subject to the approval of the Anti-Trust Authority and other regulatory authorities in Israel.

ACT NOW for ISRAEL: Flush ‘LUSH’ Cosmetics!

LUSH Cosmetics has quietly closed its Beverly Hills, California location several months after a group known as “Join the Boycott LA” (www.JTBLA.com) organized a protest outside the store to expose the company’s support of PLO extremism. LUSH, with headquarters in the UK and stores in over 40 countries around the world, is using its customers’ money to support the PLO’s extremist “One World Campaign”. This virulently anti-Israel organization portrays Israel as an “illegal” occupier committing crimes against “Palestine” and grossly exaggerates the suffering in Gaza, placing responsibility solely on the Israelis.

There is much more work to be done. We urge you to ACT NOW FOR ISRAEL by sending an email to customercare@lush.co.uk to protest their anti-Israel extremism.

It has come to our attention that LUSH, a leading luxury handmade cosmetics company, gives a percentage of its profits to an anti-Israel organization called “OneWorld”. Upon visiting the OneWorld website (http://freedomoneworld.org/), it is very clear that they are supported by extreme anti-Israel groups that are sympathetic to terrorist activity against the State of Israel. For example, one of the supporting groups is called “Friends of al-Aqsa”. Visiting their website speaks for itself: http://www.foa.org.uk/.

Did You Know?

Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

Did You Know?

An Israeli-initiated project is drastically lowering the mortality rate of Ethiopian children infected with the AIDS/HIV virus.

LIVE Talk Radio from Israel – Tuesday Nights!

LIVE FROM ISRAEL! TUESDAY NIGHTS 5:00PM – 7:00PM (EST)

Straight from the heart of Jerusalem comes the only English talk show on broadcast radio in the State of Israel. News, interviews, culture and ideas mixed with positivity and pride in the free, fruitful, and flourishing Jewish homeland.

Yishai and Malkah Fleisher, two well-known internet radio personalities, made the leap to broadcast radio on the new Galey Yisrael station in Israel, blazing a trail to create content for the growing segment of the Israeli public that speaks English. You won’t want to miss it!

We will be broadcast LIVE FROM ISRAEL every Tuesday Night from 5:00pm – 7:00pm (EST)

Click below to listen live every Tuesday!

Contact Us:

Please contribute to Israel - Light Onto Nations

Email us: Light.onto.Nations@gmail.com

I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.- Golda Meir